The Employment Act 1982 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1982 c. 46), mainly relating to trade unions. It increased compensation for those dismissed because of the closed shop and restricted the immunities enjoyed by trade unions. Background The Conservative government had already passed the Employment Act 1980 which restricted the definition of lawful picketing and introduced ballots on the existence of the closed shop where it operated, needing 80% support of the workers to be maintained. The 1982 Act was a direct response to the consultations held on the basis of the green paper, Trade Union Immunities (Cmnd. 8128), published in January 1981. The Secretary of State for Employment, Norman Tebbit, introduced the Bill in the House of Commons, saying: <blockquote>We have not sought to transform the whole framework of industrial relations law...we have tried to provide specific remedies for real abuses, to promote effective protection where it has been shown to be necessary, and to redress the imbalance of bargaining power to which the legislation of the last Government had contributed so significantly.<ref>''Hansard, 8 February 1982, Col. 738]</ref></blockquote> Contents The Act's main provisions came into force on 1 December 1982. The statute: Gave the government the power to issue compensation to some of those who were fired from their jobs due to the closed shop under the Labour government's legislation between 1974 and 1980. The people entitled to compensation are those whose sackings would have been unlawful if the clauses of the Employment Act 1980 had been law at the time. Extensively enlarged the amount of money that can be awarded in compensation to those who are unlawfully fired for not belonging to a trade union in a closed shop. The compensation in these cases, under the Act, are between £12,000 and £30,000 and can be lessened if a tribunal discovers that the employee contributed to his own dismissal. Deemed it unlawful to sack a worker for not being a trade union member in a closed shop where the closed shop arrangements have not been approved in the previous five years by the necessary 80% of workers or 85% of workers voting in secret ballots. This clause came into force on 1 November 1984 to enable trade unions and employers enough time to organise ballots. Outlawed "trade union labour only contracts". This makes it unlawful to deny to put companies in tendering lists or